Description

Double album on black vinyls with gatefold cover.

One of the Holy Grail when it comes to Kiss concerts it this recording from the Amityville club know as The Daisy (from the 16th of June 1973). Equally and perhaps even more important of a venue than the famous Coventry, Kiss played a total of 12 gigs at the club (according to Kiss Alive Forever) throughout 1973. Away from the larger Rock scene of New York City, the band was able to further hone their live act in relatively relaxed atmosphere and in typical Kiss fashion quickly won over the local rock fans and strengthened their already incredible confidence. Recorded by original sound man Eddie Solan, it is an excellent soundboard, with a slight distortion on the vocals when the various vocalists scream and a few songs are not as well balanced as the rest of the set, but there is virtually no hiss. For a 40 year old live recording it is an incredible listening experience. Long Islands Strangest Nite Club, Warm Beer, Rotten Food, Lousy Bands, Crazy Bartenders, Cheap Beer. This was the description of the club as printed on the back of the match boxes given away as advertisement of the club, and what better place to find Kiss pre-record contract and still looking to complete the image they had been working on since the bands incarnation in Early 1973. They had pretty much figured out the individual make up for each member but it still had a crude look and they still had elements of a Glam look in their stage attire. One things they did not lack at this early stage, was music chops, one always hears of Kiss being somewhat sloppy and spending more time on looks and moves versus music but it takes one listen to this recording to know that Kiss was a musical force during their infancy. The first set begins with Nothing To Lose, the structure and lyrics of the song are all there but this version is busy, a few little solos here and there, the band would strip it down farther to complete it. Peter tells the audience its their last show in Amityville and that they have a mailing list and if you sign up they will send you a postcard with their pictures on it, so the horny bitches can do themselves with it, Kiss had the sexuality part down already. Also interesting is Peter doing some MC, he was the most experienced member as a live performer at this point. Firehouse is not as refined, in fact in the middle part you can hear traces of the riff that Ace would use in his solo later when it was a part of Cold Gin, a theme that would be expanded upon later in the show. Life In The Woods is an unreleased song, it is also a vehicle for crowd participation, Paul tells the audience they wont be back for sometime so Were not coming back here for a while lets get it out of our system tonight. The song actually is pretty good in a musical sense although the lyrics are the repetitive Life in the woods would be easy and Paul demands lets see some tits shake.lets get our friends up on stage with us, and an audience member comes up and takes over on vocals as the band succeeds in starting a party, they get a nice ovation at the songs conclusion. Simple Type is a take on the old Wicked Lester song but stripped down and the band has put a hard rock spin on it musically and vocally making it much more effective, although one can see why it did not make it past being a set filler. The middle section of the song is the main riff from Aces future solo spot in an embryonic form and Peter takes a brief solo before the whole thing moves into jam territory that is really cool to hear. One of the exiting aspects of this show is a complete version of Acrobat along with Your Much To Young, as with any version of Acrobat it is great, a simple yet heavy as hell riff and the song is a rare Kiss instrumental, the song is broken up by a Peter drum solo that has the band changing gears and they plow into Your Much Too Young. The song is a fast up tempo rocker and almost has a boogie feel to it as well as another spot for a drum solo, Peter was most certainly an important part of their early live set. This is gonna be our last song leads into Deuce and the primal rock fury is unleashed, the song is all there, Aces solos are a bit different and they break the songs momentum by going into this jam thing making the ending not as effective as it could be, Gene thanks the crowd at its conclusion. Back for an encore the band go into 100,000 Years, this song suffers from tape warble. It is interesting that the middle portion of the song is very similar to the Alive! version except it is more geared to overt sexuality and Paul lets the women in the audience know what he wants, the tape warble does improve near the end of the song. A shout out for un wed Fathers Day leads into a very dynamic Black Diamond, as with Deuce the song is probably the most complete. Peters vocals are high in the mix and he is all over and thrashing like a mad man. The ending of the song is very long, one can wonder why there were so many long pauses. The last three songs are from the second set of the night, there is notable tape hiss present and the quality drops a notch, the music begins with Strutter, musically most complete of all the early classics the only real difference is that Aces solo is a little different. The sound does fluctuate towards the end by dropping in volume. Paul asks for a second to change a broken string, Gene takes over and tells the audience to go sign up for their mailing list and offers something extra if they do so. Watching You suffers from tape warble, interesting to hear since the song would not be released for well over a year on the bands second album Hotter Than Hell. Musically the song is close to the released version and is very strong and is a wonderful addition to the set. The last song is Sunday Driver, it would be released on the bands debut album re titled Let Me Know. It is one of Pauls earliest songs and is famous in Kiss lore as being one of the songs Paul played for Gene when they first met. Its amazing to hear this tape, the bands talent as musicians and song writers is apparent at this very early stage. As Kiss releases go this is most certainly the most important and relevant recording to surface for some time and for the Kiss fan its essential.

Track listing:
1. Nothing To Lose
2. Firehouse
3. Life In The Woods
4. Simple Type
5. Acrobat
6. Deuce
7. 100,000 Years
8. Black Diamond
9. Strutter-evening show
10. Watching You-evening show
11. Sunday Driver-evening show